Here to introduce myself, I'll be buying a 2000 XLT 4x4 Tuesday. Figured I'd register and get to reading and planning on what I'm going to do to it. It will be a spare fun vehicle that I'll use for some off roading and taking to the woods during hunting season.

 

Welcome to the forum! Be sure to post pictures of your new Ranger.

 

I'll post some pictures this weekend when I have some daylight to take them, I work nights. I'll also be doing a couple small projects to the truck that I haven't seen done yet.

 

1998 to 2000 4x4 Rangers had PVH(pulse vacuum hubs) up front, they were a bad idea from the start, failed to lock or unlock.
Starting in 1999 Ford started switching Ranger 4x4s over to "Live Axle", front axle was always connected to front hub, so full time lock

So you could have either in a 2000 Ranger, hopefully Live Axle, if PVH and it hasn't been changed to Manual Hubs then budget for that project, Rugged Ridge/AVM are the only hubs that fit on PVH hubs.

2001 and up Rangers were all Live Axle

 

Thanks for the info, I tried a quick Google search but couldn't find a description on how to tell the difference, what should I look for that would tell me which I have?